This invention relates to automated handling of parts in an automated production system, either for loading the parts onto trays, or unloading the parts from the trays.
As one example, parts may be supplied on trays, and there may be a need to transfer those parts automatically from the trays to another location, such as to pallets which are conveyed past the unloading station. In the reverse situation, parts may arrive at a work station, from a manufacturing operation for example, and may then have to be automatically loaded onto trays for transportation to another location, whether elsewhere in the same factory, or at some remote location. There may be one part on the tray, or many parts, each at a specific location on the tray, which may be predefined or which could be detected by a vision system which is not itself part of the invention.